Nets for the world

The present distributing chain is organized as follow:

• North America – Euro Fishing Gear with stock points in New Bedford, Seattle and Nogales.

• South America – Euronete Sudamericana with stock points in Uruguay, Chile and Brazil.

• European distribution is organised from the company’s main factory in Maia with distribution companies in the Netherlands (with Ymuiden Stores), in Denmark with Euronete Scandinavia and in the UK through Euronete UK.

• In the Far East, Euronete has started co-operation in Korea and will soon cover all the main fishing markets in the area from there.

• The company also has distributors in others parts of the world including Russia, Canada, South Africa, Australia and many others.

Recently, Euronete has improved its production facilities with the addition of the new braiding factory in the North of Portugal where 3,000 tonnes of braid are made per year and 175 workers employed.

In the recent years Euronete has focussed its activities on developing materials to be used in the different fishing grounds around the world, either for bottom trawling or for pelagic fishing, and based these developments on using different grades of High Density Polyethylene and new extrusion technology developed by the R&D operation of the Group, to achieve better results with this traditional material.

With the different processing methods used by Euronete, it has been able to achieve an evolution of the specifications of Polyethylene monofilaments used in the production of twines for net production. These result in different types of HDPE netting that have between them quite different specifications. Major differences between each step are:

Step 1: PE Braided – standard Polyethylene.

Step 2: Euroline – netting made with PE monofilaments 15 % stronger than step 1.

Step 3: Euroline Premium – netting made with PE monofilaments 25% stronger than Step 2.

Step 4: Euroline Premium “Plus” – netting made with PE monofilaments 20% stronger than step 3.

Step 5: The R&D of the Royal Lankhorst/Euronete is already working on a new generation of PE fibre.

So, the important thing is to use the right product for the right application and some guidance can be given such as, standard Green Polyethylene netting is still doing well on the lower panel of bottom trawls where a heavier diameter of twine is needed to resist the abrasion suffered on the seabed and this also turns out to be a economical solution. To compensate for this on the top panel, stronger PE material can be used, like Premium netting to offset the weight of the bottom panel and build more efficient trawls.

Bottom trawls are very popular around the world and the most popular Euronete combinations to be used for net production are PE Braided with Premium or Euroline with Premium.

Regarding pelagic fishing, mid-water trawls need a product that is fast to tow, lighter and efficient, and therefore this offers more opportunities for development.

So products like Premium and Premium “Plus” netting, based on polyethylene raw materials as referred to in steps 3 and 4 above, are achieving very goods results in mid-water operations.

Trawls, because of the high abrasion and good shock absorption of these types of netting are currently being used on the back ends of the trawls, with great success by the US, Russian and Icelandic fleets.

Also, currently, Euronete has developed a large number of special Net Twines, like Super 12, Tiptolon braided and twisted, Premium and PE/PA for making hand made meshes to be used in pelagic fishing. Different products have proven very successful in various markets in the world like the Faroe Islands, Norway, Holland, Ireland, Iceland, USA and Russia.

The company’s goal is to always deliver new types of materials, improve the specification of existing materials and be innovative.